Leftfield choice company's saviour

By SELWYN PARKER

U-Bix's market share was slipping, it was stuck in an all-out discount war with its competitors, it was overstaffed, and something had to be done.

Not only that, the copier industry was grappling with a revolution from analog to digital technology that would dramatically change the way it would be managed.

The solution of the board at Cullen Investments, whose main shareholder is Eric Watson, was to install a woman, Sheree Tootell, as chief executive. She had virtually no experience in the copier industry, even less of brand wars, of the new digital technology, or of much else that seemed relevant to the position. And, oh yes, she was 31.

"There was room for improvement," says Tootell carefully about the company when she started just over a year ago.

Now U-Bix Document Solutions, to give the company its full title, is doing quite well, thank you.

Market share is up, according to an independent survey, by more than 25 per cent. Tootell is steering U-Bix out of the discount wars and aiming for a value-added strategy. Staff has been trimmed from 410 to 370. The ship has steadied.

"Now we're going for growth," says Tootell - a year older and a lot wiser. She always saw the job as one of leadership. That is, one of leading U-Bix into a different era.

Despite her relative youth, Tootell has been there before. A graduate in management studies and a chartered accountant, she had already done a makeover on U-Bix's finance company, BSG.

As general manager and still in her twenties, she merged two companies, developed long-term strategies, won back business with competitive financing packages, introduced key performance indicators and significantly boosted profitability.

So she had already had combat time when she arrived at U-Bix. She also knew the enemy. Fear.

"A lot of people are resistant to change. It makes them feel anxious and nervous. And this organisation had to go through a lot of change."

Her solution was to tell all. She made a point of letting staff know pretty much everything that was going on. After all, this reflected the first of the values she installed after moving in to her modest corner office.

"Open and honest communication is so important," she explains.

"And it has to be two-way. I could hardly stand up there and demand everybody be open and honest with me when I still kept stuff to myself.

"Anyway, people get worried about what they don't know. They end up guessing things and what they guess is always worse than the truth."

Now, every month everyone gets a one-page email containing all the essential information. And every quarter, Tootell and her managers go on a roadshow of U-Bix's six main national branches.

This starts at exactly 4 pm. The timing is deliberate. After a few words, Tootell invites questions.

"You get half the questions at that time. Then it's close to 5 pm so we all go off and have a beer.

"That's when we get the other half. These are the ones that are really on employees' minds but which they are too afraid to ask in an open forum."

When Tootell took the job, she found that 20 managers wanted to report to her.

"Too many. I was getting much too far down into the business."

The inner circle now contains just five.

To get away from the discount wars which had squeezed margins, Tootell took salespeople off commission-only packages and gave them a combo of base salary plus commission for creating added-value business such as software and services. (In the top end of the industry where a machine can cost as much as $500,000, it's quite common for salespeople to earn more than their chief executive.)

There were redundancies, when possible made by natural attrition. When they weren't, Tootell tried to tell staff personally. Three smaller branches have been franchised and a further five will follow in the next eight months.

Six straightforward values were installed. Apart from honest communication, they included taking responsibility, keeping promises, integrity and so on.

Looking back, Tootell doesn't think her lack of experience in the industry was a handicap.

"I think leadership skills are transferable. But it comes down to leadership as opposed to management. I try and get good people who know more than me. It's about exploiting people's strengths."

The most important thing in the revival of U-Bix? "Good people," says Tootell instantly.

U-Bix's young boss gives the impression of somebody on top of her job. She's calm and smiles a lot.

Her year of 12-hour days doesn't seem to have taken much of a toll. She makes a point of going out for a brain-clearing jog with her partner when she gets home, even though it's usually dark.

She also scuba-dives, cycles, tramps (Milford Track last Easter), and is aiming for a corporate triathlon and the BMW half-marathon in October.

"I make a point of never bringing work home," Tootell says firmly.

That makes sense. If there's pressure at work, you don't want it at home too.

* Selwyn Parker is available at wordz@xtra.co.nz